Old Christchurch

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17410, 12 December 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

Old Christchurch

Its Story from the Early days. A Chapter of the Thirties. (Specially written tor the •‘Star.”) Bv JOHANNES C\ ANDERSEN. CHAPTER f. Eight years ago my friend Mr H. digram wrote the Story of Christchurch. describing the advent and growth of that town in good historical fashion. In tliat book he has gathered together the solid facts of its history- 1 now wish to supplement his hook, not by covering the same ground, though T cover the same period, but by recalling what [ have heard and what I ran remember of what the town looked like, and what its folk were like; how the face of the town changed —jes, and the faces of the folk, too. Many of those of whom I shall speak have packed their last valise—almost 1 can say with Lamb: "All. all are eone, the old familiar faces." The first chapter must begin with events that occurred more than twenty years hetore there was any such place i*s Christchurch on the Canterbury Plains. Away hack, about the year 1908. I heard of the existence of a diary tliat I very much wanted to see: the diary of Joseph Price, of Kaituna. \nt until 1911 did I get a glimpse of it and then I found it was no diary, but three ‘ lives,” written to dictation bv T. <»hieal y. of Little River. The lives were, as Quealv said, ‘‘very much detached, as frequently during the narrative I had to begin again and again according to the mood the old man was in ( !1 ltd he had about twenty moods in a da\ ).*' The first life was taken in September, 1*92. 1 do not know the date of the others ; hut the oi l man’s memory was very reliable, for his dates agree fairly well with dates given in shipping records. Price was born in North Shields, Northumberland, in 1810, and his first clear remembrance was of the Waterloo celebrations in 1815. He led a roving life*, sailing most of the seas of the world. So tar as concerns the present story, however, a start need not be made any further hack than 1829. in w hich year he came to Australia on the “Roslvn ( astle.” a ship which took I m women convicts to Sydney. He joined a whaler, and spent about eight months sperm-whaling (in the lives it is constantly spelt ‘spalni-wbaling >. II then joined the “William Stoveld.” 187 tons. Captain Davidson, owned by Bell and Farmer. He sailed to Port Underwood, and the Sydney newspaper records give the date of sailing as April 2<>. 1830; the ship was recorded as whaling at kapiti oil June 25. 1830, returning to Sydney on August 13 with 5c tuns of oil and 25 tons of flax. He was right-whaling on this boat for eight months, when Hie joined the barque “Victoria." trading in flax, and sailed tor Port < ’oope.r, the whalers’ name of Lyttelton Harbour. Here is the first, mention of the Canterbury Plains, then known as the Port Cooper Plains. Price, with William* the trading master. engaged either h\ Jacob Cnire. or Marsh nan a rope maker, of Sydney, went overland from Port Cooper to Kaiajxu- Thex lo>t their way, and had some difficulty in finding the month of the river. They got pigs and flax in exchange lor powder and muskets, tobacco and blankets. The rum oil hoard had been exhausted at Kapiti among the whites living there, most of ■whom were runaway convict*. The pigs and flax were sent to Rapaki, and thence to the haw later known as Rhodes’s Bay, or Purau Bay. where the barque lay. Thence they sailed to Akaroa, where more flax was secured. In those days Price says there were two white men at Akaroa, one being a convict with his lace tattooed, the other a sailor, who joined them. They lay there for a week, and then set sail tor the .Maori settlement in Otago, probably Waikouaiti, taking a* passengers a .Maori chief Momn, a Maori called Jackcv Lynx, and another. They la\ there for two weeks, and then returned to Port Cooper, taking with them tin* chid Moum, who was expecting Rnupnrahn from Kapiti. This i< an important note, as it would appear that Rauparnha had not yet made that disastrous raid on kaiapoi and Onawe that almost exterminated that branch of the. NgaiTahu. Ihe raid was supposed to have taken place in 1830 or 1832 ; it could hardly have been 1830, since Price was there soon after that time, and there would hardly have been enough trade to attract Williams. Before the raid Kaiapoi was a well populated, flourishing settlement. The more probable date is therefore- 1832. From Port < ’ooper they went on noith, about August, 183!. to Tauranga, where the. barque went, ashore on the rocks, the rudder and false keel being lost. They got afloat/ again next tide, however, being assisted in effecting repairs by the officers of a brig, and a schooner named Prince of Denmark. This schooner had come to Sydney on .March 29, 1831, with fifty tons of flax, and was reported again on December 31 of that year. The Victoria then sailed for Sydney with a cargo of eighty tons of flax. The flax the Maori supplied at that time was beautifully dressed by hand, and was worth about £3O a ton. The pigs obtained from the Maori were used before they ’.eft Now Zealand, so during their fortnight’s voyage to Sydney they had nothing but potatoes and manuka tea. His contract being up. Price left the Victoria and shipped as boatsteerer on the. barque Caroline, for sperm whaling. The Caroline was trading regularly with New Zealand iu IS.’;!, arriving in